Hello! Boyfriend and I (m/f couple late 20s) will be travelling to Japan for the first time in November this year (2023). We land and depart from Tokyo, Narita. There’s so much to discover that right now, being deep into the itinerary feels overwhelming so it’d be great to get some helpful advice to see if our itinerary is a good choice. We have drafted an itinerary but it is open to change. We are interested in anything food related, nature (want to split between cities and countryside), technology & sciences, history…We do not speak Japanese (but learning a little with Duolingo + know a few useful phrases).
We arrive at the beginning of November and leave in December for a total of **34 days.**
In this post, I have not detailed everything (like day activities) especially for Kyoto, Tokyo, cities : we know what we generally want to do but it isn’t fixed yet. Also didn’t want to make a too long post but if it’s a requirement I’ll edit the post. We are of course open to suggestions regarding day activities but mainly looking for general advice regarding our itinerary :
*Main question : is it overall doable? Should we not go somewhere, or travel differently (like swap some cities) Should we spend more nights there and less there…? What do you think ?*
Idea is to take time and not speedrun the country. It was difficult to chose what to do. Options were also to go to Kyushu (Kagoshima&Yakushima, Oita&Beppu, Fukuoka) and maybe also spend time in Kamakura or Shiragawa-go, but we unfortunately cannot do everything…For now, we are happy with the following plan :
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* Day 1: Arrival in **Tokyo** in the afternoon. Go to accomodation & then wander to find something to eat.
* Day 2,3,4, Visit **Tokyo** (Ghibli museum, museum of science, cooking class, Shinjuku, Shibuja, Gotoku-ji, Asakusa, wander in the city…) Coming back to spend more days in Tokyo at the end of the trip.
* Day 5,6,7 Depart from Tokyo to **Kyoto** in the morning, visit the town/ Day trip to Nara/ visit Kyoto
* Day 8 Departure to **Osaka** in the afternoon, check in, and spend the evening in Dotonburi
* Day 9 Morning hopefully Miso making class in Sakai or Visit **Osaka**/ then leave to **Koyasan** in the afternoon/Spend night in a temple in Koyasan
*->(spend more days in Kyoto or Osaka?)*
* Day 10 Spend morning/noon in **Koyasan** (Necropolis Oku no in) Back to Osaka, sleep there.
* Day 11 Spend the day in **Himeji** *(what to do with luggage?)* / train to **Okayama**, sleep there.
* Day 12 trip to **Kurashiki** / back to **Okayama,** sleep there
* Day 13, 14, 15 Trip to Shodoshima / rent bikes / visit a shoyu factory / monkey park /trail in the forest / Departure by ferry to **Takamatsu**
Shikoku
Is middle/end of november still a nice time on Shikoku Island ? Also we are planning to do everything by transports. No car rent. Fine with slow buses, long train rides.
* Day 16 Hike from Shiromine-ji to Negoro-ji in **Takamatsu** spend the night in Takamatsu
* Day 17 go to Mima either via train from Tokushima, or directly from Takamatsu by bus+taxi? Spend the day in **Mima**, spend the night there
* Day 18 still in **Mima** : Sarukai fields? / Mima Wagasa Labo / go to **Oboke** and spend the night there
* Day 19 Iya Valley / Oboke gorge/ Scarescrow village / Yokai museum / a vine bridge / spend another night in **Oboke**
*(wanted to go to Hakura-ji but don’t know how to fit this in the plan)*
* Day 20 Oboke to **Matsuyama** / Dogo onsen / relaxing evening
* Day 21 **Matsuyama** castle / **Ozu** visit / another night in Matsuyama
* Day 22 Ferry to **Hiroshima** / Visit in the town / Peace memorial / night there
* Day 23 Hiroshima to **Miyajima /** spend a night (or two?) on the island
* Day 24 Back to **Hiroshima** / Travel to **Kanazawa**
* Day 25, 26, 27, 28 **Kanazawa** & around / Kenroku-en / Contemporary Art Museum / Nagamachi / Higashiyama / Kamaiko / Kagaonsen / Tsukiusagi no Sato
* 29th back to **Tokyo** in the afternoon
* 30,31,32, 33, 34 Back to **Tokyo** / Visit by bike / Kappabashi / Akihabara / Shopping time / Cooking class on the 30th day
I think there might be an extra day in Tokyo or Kanazawa at the end that could easily be added somewhere else : and because we want to stay in a ryokan with the full kaiseki experience, I guess that could be it. Maybe skip a night in Osaka and visit the town from Kyoto.
We both have tattoos so can’t stay in any ryokans but I have found some with private onsen that can probably be added to the itinerary.
Also, planning to buy a JR Pass, not sure yet which one to chose, might depend on the final itinerary. Maybe it’s interesting to swap the order to get a regional pass or something.
I hope this post follows the guidelines and is clear enough. Looking forward to any feedback! Thank you very much in advance for reading all of this 🙂
3 comments
Have you booked accommodation yet?
Have you checked to see if the JR pass is worth it, considering the price increases?
If you can fit it, go to shirakawago from Kanazawa for a day trip.
You can also consider adding a day to Kyoto. 2 days in Kyoto isn’t really enough imo
JR pass might not be worthwhile. Use a pas calculator to check. You would definitely have to buy it before 30 September as the price increase is too much.
Also consider luggage forwarding – Yamato is common to use. Your hotel may be able to help you otherwise just do it at a 7/11
Personally I’d spend less time in Tokyo since it gets quite exhausting after some time (also considering that you will walk a lot even with the excellent public transportation). So I think five days should also be enough to cover the most interesting parts of the city with a slower pace (I have seen pretty much everything I wanted as a first timer in four days but also at a higher pace).